edward stanton, secretary of the navy, under abraham lincoln used those words when lincoln was taken from the world. an interesting parallel to christiane's point. >> precisely. i think the president truly believes and was referring precisely to those words and sentiment, that this is the same kind of historical figure, that mandela is the heir to lincoln. >> john king, if i may bring you in here, your take on the president's remarks, what they mean here and what they mean back home. >> i think it was quite fitting for the president at the end to connect his own story to mandela's story. when big leaders pass, there's a lot of hyperbole, sometimes great exaggeration at the farewells, the memorial services. can you imagine a speech in which the leader offive agreat nation, president obama in this case, links mandela, you see the president there, say something farewells as he wamakes his way off the stage. he compares a man to gandhi, linton and martin luther king in one speech. it's the singular nature of this event. the president clearly as you mentioned knows the biography. he knew